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The week after Christmas, leading up to the New Year, can be the richest time for reflection. Holiday gift-buying is over, the presents are unwrapped or even returned, and not much happens in the news. One can sit back and contemplate those moments in which the Christmas spirit overcomes worldly concerns, such as an impromptu sighting of a star on a dark night and wondering what it was like 2,000 years ago in Israel, which was Roman Judea at the time. Or watching a baby smile, eliciting a mother’s tender touch. Or seeing a new father’s protective presence. In “O...

Human Vision Can Sense a Single Photon by Brian Thomas, M.S. * How well designed is the human visual system? Biophysics researchers from the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Austria and Rockefeller University recently demonstrated that people can see just a single photon of light. This led them to ask how evolution could have crafted a visual system sophisticated enough to overcome the overwhelming problem of discerning single photons from the sea of electromagnetic, molecular, and electrochemical "noise" inside a human head.

World Famous Scientist: God Created the Universe ‘The final resolution could be that God is a mathematician.’ Michio Kaku has made a name for himself as a world-leading theoretical physicist unafraid to speak his mind.Kaku, the Henry Semat Chair and Professorship in theoretical physics at the City College of New York, has published more than 70 articles in physics journals on topics such as supersymmetry, superstring theory, supergravity, and hadronic physics.His latest claim is likely to make waves in the world of science.“I have concluded that we are in a world made by rules created by an intelligence”, Kaku says...

Human life begins in bright flash of light as a sperm meets an egg, scientists have shown for the first time, after capturing the astonishing ‘fireworks’ on film. An explosion of tiny sparks erupts from the egg at the exact moment of conception. Scientists had seen the phenomenon occur in other animals but it is the first time is has been also shown to happen in humans. Not only is it an incredible spectacle, highlighting the very moment that a new life begins, the size of the flash can be used to determine the quality of the fertilised egg. Researchers...

The United Methodist Church has rejected an Intelligent Design group's request to have an information table at the denomination's 2016 General Conference. Reaffirming a decision from December, the UMC's Commission on the General Conference decided last week to not allow the Seattle-based Discovery Institute an information table at the Mainline Protestant denomination's gathering in Portland, Oregon. Diane Degnan, spokeswoman for the UMC, told The Christian Post that this was the first General Conference to allow for "outside exhibitors." "The Commission on the General Conference determined that the application by the Discovery Institute did not meet the guidelines established for exhibitors...

Most people think little about their appendix, and that's only natural, because the function of the appendix has been considered unknown - until now. New research supports that our appendixes might actually be useful after all, and doctors may soon be changing their tune about this neglected organ. The appendix, which looks like a slim tube measuring between two and four inches long, sits in our lower right abdomen. It was originally thought to be vestigial - a part of the body that evolution forgot. Popular belief was that this leftover organ was originally part of a fermenting chamber in...

The slogan of the United Methodist Church (UMC) is "Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors." But UMC officials are now under fire for being closed-minded and intolerant after they banned Discovery Institute, from sponsoring an information table at the denomination's upcoming General Conference in May. Intelligent design is the idea that life and the universe show evidence of being the result of purposeful design rather than unguided processes. "Preventing United Methodist leaders from even hearing about intelligent design isn't open-minded. It's intolerant and exclusionary," said Dr. John West, Vice President of Discovery Institute. "Maybe United Methodist officials should change their...

Ben Carson on Creationism, Evolution, and Intelligent Design David Klinghoffer October 13, 2015 4:20 PM | Permalink Whether Dr. Ben Carson has adequate experience and background knowledge to be President of the United States is a fair question, but there's certainly a lot to like about him as a man. He displays an admirable fearlessness in stating in his views. That combined with his calm, soft-spoken manner and undoubted intelligence makes him an appealing personality to many voters. We're not in the business of expressing preferences for one aspirant to higher office over another, but evaluating candidates' views on relevant...

“Cold dinosaur” fossils have paleontologists questioning everything they thought they knew about dinosaur physiology. What else is up for grabs?How did dinosaurs survive far north in Alaska? That’s what researchers are asking about dinosaur bones excavated along the Colville River. The 30-foot hadrosaur is the northernmost dinosaur skeleton discovered so far. Science Daily quotes one of the researchers:“The finding of dinosaurs this far north challenges everything we thought about a dinosaur’s physiology,” said FSU Professor of Biological Science Greg Erickson. “It creates this natural question. How did they survive up here?” The Prince Creek Formation is said to be...

In Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) and in his later works, he referred to several "vestiges" in human anatomy that were left over from the course of evolution. These vestigial organs, Darwin argued, are evidence of evolution and represent a function that was once necessary for survival, but over time that function became either diminished or nonexistent. (snip) The Human Appendix In plant-eating vertebrates, the appendix is much larger and its main function is to help digest a largely herbivorous diet. The human appendix is a small pouch attached to the large intestine where it joins the...

Let us test Darwin, teacher says Science teaching materials deemed "not appropriate" by the government should be allowed in class, Education Secretary Alan Johnson has been urged. Chemistry teacher at Liverpool's Blue Coat School, Nick Cowan, says the packs promoting intelligent design are useful in debating Darwinist evolution. Education officials insist intelligent design is not recognised as science. It argues that evolution cannot explain everything so the Universe must have had an intelligent creator. The packs were sent out to 5,000 secondary schools by a group of academics and clerics known as Truth in Science. The Department for Education and...

Nanfang Yu, assistant professor of applied physics at Columbia Engineering, and colleagues from the University of Zürich and the University of Washington, have discovered two key strategies that enable Saharan silver ants to stay cool in one of the hottest terrestrial environments on Earth. Yu's team is the first to demonstrate that the ants use a coat of uniquely shaped hairs to control electromagnetic waves over an extremely broad range from the solar spectrum (visible and near-infrared) to the thermal radiation spectrum (mid-infrared), and that different physical mechanisms are used in different spectral bands to realize the same biological function...

Privileged Species with Geneticist Michael Denton Gets Its Online Premiere; See It Now! Evolution News & Views March 24, 2015 3:43 AM | Permalink Finally, the stirring and profound documentary with geneticist Michael Denton, Privileged Species, is available to see now, free online. Dr. Denton extends the argument for intelligent design to the ultra-, ultra-fine-tuning of the cosmos for carbon-based life forms like ourselves. You cannot watch these 33 minutes without coming away with the very powerful conclusion that the universe was designed with us very specifically in mind.The documentary investigates the special properties of carbon, water, and oxygen that...

Last month, I was invited to deliver the keynote address to a gathering of local Republican leaders at one of those pricey fundraising dinners. I knew that for thirty minutes, I would have the uninterrupted attention of an impressive gathering of involved conservatives and elected officials, including two United States Congressmen seated right up front. I did not want to spend that rare circumstance on temporal matters like encouraging a “Yes” vote to approve the Keystone Pipeline. Plus, I felt an obligation to deliver a speech that would seem worthy of $150 per plate. So after investing much thought, I...

Why Advocates of Intelligent Design Owe Atheist Neil deGrasse Tyson a "Thank You" David Klinghoffer October 23, 2014 3:10 PM | Permalink Why Advocates of Intelligent Design Owe Atheist Neil deGrasse Tyson a "Thank You" David Klinghoffer October 23, 2014 3:10 PM | Permalink From living in Manhattan as I once did, I remember many taxi rides listening to the popular news station 1010 WINS with its slogan, "You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world." And they did. The producers offered a picture in miniature not only of whatever they regarded as the top stories around the...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (BP) -- Two New Mexico scientists have alleged that a government-owned museum used tax money to denigrate religion and promote atheism at its annual Darwin Day celebration without giving believers in God an opportunity to present their case. A flier promoting "Darwin Day" at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque -- a division of the New Mexico state government's Department of Cultural Affairs -- listed New Mexicans for Science & Reason, the Humanist Society of New Mexico and Freedom From Religion, Albuquerque as cosponsors of the Darwin celebration in February, provoking to action...

(Salient quote from the article): A Signature A signature is a collection of described characteristics that indicates that an entity has produced an event even if that entity is no longer present or cannot be observed. After constructing the major part of the GGU-model and the GID interpretation, I discovered the following two remarks. Hermann Weyl wrote Is it conceivable that immaterial factors having the nature of images, ideas, (or) "building plans" also intervene in the evolution of the world as a whole? Then Noble Laurent Louis deBroglie wrote [T]he structure of the universe has something in common with the...

For Darwin Day 2014, Discovery Institute Will Name University of Chicago Biologist Jerry Coyne as "Censor of the Year" Evolution News & Views February 10, 2014 12:01 AM | Permalink COTY-ENV-wide-3.jpg Discovery Institute's "Censor of the Year" award recognizes success in choking off free speech on evolution and intelligent design. To be given on Darwin Day, February 12, the prize this year will go to University of Chicago biologist Jerry Coyne, author of the popular blog Why Evolution Is True. In 2013, Coyne was instrumental in pushing Ball State University in Indiana to formally ban teaching about the scientific theory...

For any who might have missed the debate Tuesday evening, it may be seen on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6kgvhG3AkI What I was listening to was more of a debate on the age of the Earth than on evolution although the two topics are related. Ham is well schooled in the arguments against evolution, but he believes in a literal intgerpretation of Genesis and a roughly six thousand year old universe; that is pretty much impossible to defend. Nye, on the other hand, strikes me as a sort of a yuppie and an acolyte of Carl Sagan's who has not made any sort...

What was most instructive about Tuesday night's debate between Ken Ham and Bill Nye [watch entire debate here] over the issue of origins was Nye's blanket admission of total, abject ignorance on the most important questions of the evening. Where did the atoms that made up the Big Bang come from? Nye has no idea. Where did man's consciousness come from? Nye has no idea. How can matter produce life? Nye has absolutely no idea. This surely is all one needs to know to recognize the utter bankruptcy of the theory of evolution. Now it's helpful for us who believe...